2. Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement that “The first year of our economic plan has been about protecting families from the sharpest edges of the recession, supporting jobs and preparing for future growth.”?

Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) : Yes.

Hon Phil Goff: How is he protecting families from the sharpest edges of the recession by having Government employers such as hospitals refuse to give any pay offer, at all, to low-paid workers, whose power prices, doctors’ fees, and grocery costs have gone up, and whose rents went up this year, on average, by 8 percent? How is that protecting families?

Hon JOHN KEY: Firstly, we are giving pay increases to low-paid workers; school support staff are one example of that. Secondly, anyone who wants to take a moment to go back and re-read Phil Goff’s general debate speech of last week—and I do not necessarily suggest they do—will realise that it did not have one single fact in it. If he wants to ask me a few questions in question time about what he said in that speech, I look forward to giving him answers of the truth, not what he made up while he was on his feet last week.

Hon Phil Goff: How is the Prime Minister protecting families earning less than $40,000 a year with dependent children when he gave them no tax cut and they are being offered no pay rise, and when the Prime Minister gave himself a very generous tax cut and the man sitting next to him doubled his housing allowance to $47,000—more than all of these families earned in the entire year?

Hon JOHN KEY: My only question is whether the real leader of the Labour Party, Shane Jones, could ask a better question in this instance.

Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. You know the point of order: that answer made no effort at all to answer the question, which was quite straightforward.

Mr SPEAKER: I hear the honourable Leader of the Opposition’s point of order. I must say that the Prime Minister started down a track that has led to a fair bit of disorder with his previous answer. There was no way I could then prevent the Leader of the Opposition from asking a pretty loaded supplementary question, and so it got worse. It was my fault; I apologise to the House for letting that happen, and I ask the Prime Minister to answer, in so far as he can, the question from the Leader of the Opposition.

Hon JOHN KEY: I will go back to square one. Not one part of the question that the Leader of the Opposition asked was factually correct—not one bit of it. Actually, low-paid workers got a tax cut—the independent allowance saw to that, as did the tax cuts across the board. So that part was not true. I will not go into the other bits. To give members an idea of the sorts of things he is saying, in his general debate speech last week he said: “the cost of their groceries is going up,”. I guess that is factually true; under the National Government the cost of groceries that New Zealanders buy has gone up 0.9 percent. The only problem with that figure is that the year before, under Labour, the cost of groceries went up 10.3 percent.

Hon Phil Goff: Mr Speaker—[Interruption]

Mr SPEAKER: I apologise to the Leader of the Opposition. I have called the honourable Leader of the Opposition and I expect him to be shown some courtesy.

Hon Phil Goff: How is allowing the number of workers who are unemployed to nearly double to 150,000 in the last year helping those people escape the sharpest edges of the recession; and why is it that, for the first time in decades, unemployment in this country exceeds the unemployment rate across the Tasman in Australia? Is that his achievement?

Hon JOHN KEY: As the Minister of Finance said today when he released the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, the Treasury expectations were that we would lose 120,000 jobs over this period; we have lost 60,000. I think that is a pretty good result. Last week Phil Goff said in his general debate speech that the rents of New Zealanders who are in work had gone up by 8 percent. Actually, that is not correct: rents have gone up by 1.1 percent, not 8 percent. The year before rents went up 3.1 percent.

Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. [Interruption]

Mr SPEAKER: I have recognised a point of order from the honourable Leader of the Opposition.

Hon Phil Goff: I seek the leave of the House to table the news report from Statistics New Zealand showing that on average rents have gone up by 8 percent in the last year.

Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection.

• Document, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.

Hon Phil Goff: Is it not obvious that the Government has failed to protect tens of thousands of families from the bitter effects of recession when the Auckland City Missioner, Diane Robertson, said this morning that literally thousands of additional people have come through her agency this year compared with last year, and that families who were doing OK this year have lost their jobs, lost their homes, and been thrust into poverty?

Hon JOHN KEY: One of the most important things a Government can do, if it wants to look after those in our society, is to make sure that electricity prices are not going up so much. Last week Phil Goff, in his general debate speech, said: “We have seen power prices go up.” Darn right we have; we saw them go up 72 percent over 8 years under Labour. I congratulate the Minister of Energy and Resources on doing something—

Hon Phil Goff: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. That rave did not attempt to answer my question, at all. I ask you to bring the Prime Minister to the question.

Mr SPEAKER: I ask members to be a little reasonable here. I must say to the Prime Minister that he should not be going quite as far down the track as he is in referring to the speech of the honourable Leader of the Opposition last week. It will lead to disorder, as we have seen. What I will do, because I think it is reasonable, is invite the Leader of the Opposition to repeat his question without penalty.

Hon Phil Goff: Is the Prime Minister aware of the comments made on radio this morning by the Auckland City Missioner, Diane Robertson, that thousands of extra families have required the services of her agency this year, and that families that were doing OK last year have found that they have been thrust into poverty—losing their jobs and losing their homes—when last year they were doing OK? Is this what he means by blunting the sharp edges of the recession?

Hon JOHN KEY: Yes. The reality is that we are coming out of a global economic recession. The reality is that people lose their jobs, they struggle, and they suffer. That is why the Government has had such a comprehensive programme for getting New Zealanders back into work. That is why week after week we have seen the unemployment rate fall. That is why I am very proud of the Minister for Social Development and Employment and all that she has been doing to help New Zealanders through these tough times.